The private American lunar lander, which launched on Monday but had severe flight problems shortly afterwards, has “no chance” of landing smoothly on the moon as originally planned, the company Astrobotic, which developed the lander, said on Tuesday.
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The mission would be the first landing of an American spacecraft on the moon since the end of the Apollo program more than 50 years ago. Astrobotic could have also become the first private company to successfully land on the moon.
Unfortunately, due to a fuel leak, “there is no chance of a soft landing on the Moon,” Astrobotic wrote in a statement posted on X.
Despite this failure, “we still have enough fuel to continue operating the vehicle as a ship,” Astrobotic said. “We are currently anticipating that we will run out of fuel in about 40 hours.”
The young Pennsylvania-based startup said it continues to receive “valuable data” for its next lunar landing attempt.
The machine took off from Florida on Monday aboard the ULA industrial group's new Vulcan Centaur rocket.
The lander, named Peregrine, was developed by Astrobotic with financial support from NASA, which contracted that company to transport scientific equipment to the moon, a contract worth $108 million.
The launch initiated a series of missions supported by the American space agency to promote the development of a lunar economy. NASA has signed a contract with several companies, including Astrobotic, to send experiments and technology to the moon – a program called CLPS.
This failure therefore also represents a setback for the American space agency, even if it was not directly involved in the maneuver. However, she said she was aware of the risks that came with relying on young companies.
“Space travel is a daring adventure,” NASA boss Bill Nelson responded to X on Monday after the difficulties encountered were announced. “NASA will continue to expand its reach in the cosmos with our commercial partners,” he promised.
Another American company selected by NASA for its program, Intuitive Machines, will try the adventure again very soon: it will have to launch to the moon on a SpaceX rocket no earlier than mid-February.
“Holy place”
Astrobotic's mission also included cargo from private customers on board.
These include the ashes or DNA of dozens of people, including that of Gene Roddenberry, creator of the famous science fiction television series Star Trek. A partnership with the company Celestis, which specializes in “commemorative space flights”.
Sending these ashes to the moon aroused the ire of the Navajo Indian tribe, who denounced the “desecration of a sacred place.”
Celestis CEO Charles M. Chafer said Tuesday that his company has enough samples to include its customers on a new flight “in the event that the mission does not arrive at the planned destination.”
So far, only four nations – the United States, the Soviet Union, China and India – have managed to successfully land a spacecraft on the moon.
In recent years, private Israeli and Japanese companies have also attempted to land on the moon, but those missions ended in crashes.
In about two weeks, a mission from the Japanese space agency (Jaxa) will also attempt to land on the moon. Russia, on the other hand, spectacularly missed a moon landing this summer.